Page images
PDF
EPUB

hostilities, came with six hundred men from Hasli and Simmerthal. And yet even with this reinforcement the Bernese army scarcely amounted to 5000. They were conducted by Rudolph of Erlach, whose father before him, forty years since, had led them on to battle. He was a vassal of the count of Nidau; but, when the war was about to break out between Berne and the Empire, had asked permission of his liege lord to espouse the part of that town. "I have in my service," replied the count, "two hundred men-atarms, and a hundred and forty devoted knights; so it is quite indifferent to me whether I have one man more or less." Erlach, who felt much wounded by this disdainful speech, rejoined, "My lord count, you say that I am a man; I shall attempt to prove to you what the value of a single man may be."

The Bernese troops arrived at Laupen about noon. The besieging troops viewed them with derision, contrasting their own numbers with the scanty line of the enemy. They even accused the Bernese of having women in their ranks, such was the youthful appearance of many of them. The battle was commenced by the Swiss slingers, who discharging their missiles three times, threw their opponents into disorder. They were followed by chariots of war, which dashed down from the hills upon the German troops, and made wide breaches in the ranks of the enemy. The slingers had, however, retreated after having discharged their weapons; and the hindermost ranks supposed they were routed. Some of them were thrown into consternation and fled; but Erlach succeeded in bringing them back from the wood in which they had hidden themselves. Then came the close engagement, and the result was long doubtful; until, at length, the German troops could no longer stand before the ardor of men, who for the most part were fighting for their all. The Friburghers were the most valiant of the enemy, but the others fled, leaving eighty knights, besides 4,500 other soldiers dead on the field. Only twenty-two of the Bernese fell in this battle, which in disparity of numbers equalled almost any battle recorded in ancient history. The victorious army, it is said, passed the succeeding night on the field of battle, following the example of the Greeks, in this form.

Such was the result of the battle of Laupen. It was followed by less brilliant engagements, and a few years afterwards peace was re-established, and the independence of Berne was guaranteed. Fourteen years subsequent to this, in 1353, just five centuries ago, the original Forest

Cantons resolved to increase their confederacy, by admitting into it, in addition to four others, the canton of Berne. Though but the eighth and last in order of time, from its importance the canton of Berne was at once advanced to the second rank. It was the last of the eight cantons, which formed the old confederacy, and possessed, until lately, great privileges over the other and newer members.

And

The battle of Morat occurred more than a century after that of Laupen. In the latter the Swiss had opposed the Germans and Austrians, but now these were their allies. Charles the Rash, duke of Burgundy, was a violent and ambitious man, and though a subject prince to Louis the Eleventh, king of France, was in fact far more powerful than that monarch. His overbearing conduct had excited the indignation, not only of Louis, but also of Sigismund, the Emperor of Germany, and of the Swiss cantons. Presuming on his widely extended possessions, reaching from the borders of Switzerland to the North Sea, he demanded the title of king. as the emperor refused this, he was much displeased, and sought the first opportunity of making war with him. Sigismund called upon the Swiss to join in combating their common dangerous enemy. The confederacy, and above all, the Bernese, showed much alacrity in the matter, notwithstanding the intrigues of Charles, who endeavored to soothe them with promises of redress for the grievances of which they complained. The troops of the Swiss, eighteen thousand strong, overran the Pays de Vaud, which at that time did not belong to them, and even crossed the boundary of the duke of Burgundy, and took the mountain town of Pontarlier. But the Swiss soon found that they had drawn themselves into a dangerous position; for Sigismund, who had as full a share of Austrian good faith, as his majesty Ferdinand of happy memory, thought it perfectly just and proper to violate his pledged word, and seized the first opportunity of concluding a separate peace. The Swiss, deserted by their sworn allies, were now exposed to the onset of all the forces of the daring count, who had not yet earned for himself the epithet of Rash. In the winter of 1476 he crossed the Jura, and advanced to the little town of Grandson, at the southern end of the lake of Neuchatel, in which the Bernese had placed a small garrison of soldiers. The duke, with his 60,000 men, besieged the place for ten days, without success. Enraged at this, he gave notice to the garrison, that unless they surrendered within a given time, he would hang all whom he found there. At

the same time a knight of Burgundy was instructed to promise their lives and a safe conduct to the Swiss, upon condition of an immediate capitulation. The latter, who saw no prospect of relief from their confederates, whom the inroad of the enemy had probably taken at unawares, determined to trust the duke's word. History has taught us by numerous examples what they seem to have been ignorant of, that it is safer to rely on the faith and generosity of the people, even in the most unlicensed democracy, than on the solemn promises of many of the crowned princes of the oldest and most legitimate families. Charles of Burgundy, regardless of his word, of the opinion of mankind, and of history, which never fails presently to cover with infamy the name of the perjured, caused the men, to the number of 450, to be stripped, and either hung or drowned in the lake. The Swiss were assembled some thirty miles off, at Neuchatel, and they resolved that the treacherous monarch should feel the weight of their revenge. With such feelings they marched directly towards the town of Grandson, and its vicinity became the scene of their vengeance. Their vanguard was attacked by the whole body of the enemy, and yet it succeeded in defending itself vigorously. But when the auxiliaries from the Forest Cantons came upon the field of action, Charles asked anxiously who they were; when one of his officers answered, "They are the men before whom Austria has fled." "Woe to us, then," was his answer, as he ordered the advanced guard to retreat a short distance. Mistaking this retrograde motion for a flight, the whole army turned, and fled to their camp; even this they soon abandoned. But few men were slain in the action, though great quantities of gold and silver, with other valuables, fell into the hands of the Swiss.

For two months the duke of Burgundy, in no wise dispirited by his defeat, occupied himself with warlike preparations. At length he advanced towards Morat, a small town containing at present near two thousand inhabitants, and situated about sixteen miles westward of Berne. It was garrisoned by fifteen hundred men, while upwards of sixty thousand Burgundians besieged it. The Swiss, who espoused with enthusiasm the cause of their common country, advanced to Morat on the morning of the 22d of June, the day following the anniversary of the battle of Laupen, numbering some thirty-four thousand strong. They found the duke encamped with an army of double that number, with his right wing resting on the hills, and his left defended by the

lake. The Swiss knelt to pray for succor, and, as the morning had been rainy the Burgundians expected no engagement that day. Finding the enemy retiring to their camp, the Swiss rushed upon some batteries, and, before aid could come, they had turned them against the Burgundians themselves. At the same time bodies of their men seized more commanding points on either wing, and, finding themselves exposed simultaneously to two or three fires, the French were soon thrown into disorder. The rout became general; and the confederates pursued the fugitives for miles towards their country. duke only escaped with thirty horsemen to Morges, on the northern side of the lake of Geneva,-some forty miles distant. It was a curious circumstance that the war-cry of the pursuers was Grandson; a word which excited in their breasts a thirst for revenge, and reminded them of their recent victory. On this one day fifteen thousand Burgundians were killed in battle, besides ten thousand who were drowned in attempting to swim across the narrow lake of Morat.

The

Thus was Berne twice saved from utter

destruction. At Laupen, in the fourteenth century, and at Morat, in the fifteenth, the boasted strength of Austria and France was signally defeated by inferior forces. Berne was thenceforth the most important state in Switzerland. So it was a very happy choice that fixed upon the anniversaries of those great battles for the fifth centennial celebra. tion of the formation of the league of the Eight Original Cantons.

Now let us return to the procession, which was the most characteristic and attractive feature of the feast. A party of drummers, followed by a company or two of unarmed infantry, marched along through the main street to clear a passage for the procession. A few cadets were distributed in various places to prevent the crowd from trespassing upon the open space; for now almost every body in the town had come to view the pageant. The windows of all the houses upon the line of the procession were decorated with evergreens and drapery, and filled with ladies and gentlemen, striving to get a better view of the scene. And now the procession appears. The first part of it, or the opening procession, was composed of two portions,-the first representing the state or canton of Berne, and the other the city, as giving the festival. In the first the men were all dressed in the costume of the sixteenth century, and rode on well-caparisoned horses. marshal, the trumpeters, the commander, and his escort. successively advanced.

The

The defensive armor of the horsemen was light, and much more simple than that of more ancient periods. Like all that was used on this occasion, it had been drawn from the old treasures of the armory of Berne, and from some neighboring cities. A round helmet of a single piece, without a visor in front, but descending behind so as to protect the back part of the neck, and a cuirass of steel, covering the breast, composed the whole of it. The helmet was adorned with a long drooping feather; the red sleeves of the coat were loose and flowing. A short skirt scarcely reached the knees of the horseman, whose legs were below partly covered by short boots. The horses and men were certainly entirely unaccustomed to appear in such fantastic costumes, and the former often displayed rather a restive disposition, caused, in great part, by the gaudy drapery which covered their backs, and fell in front over their chests. The men, however, although most of them had been taken from the lower ranks, and had given themselves a more imposing appearance, by means of false beards and moustaches, seemed perfectly at their ease, and showed none of that awkwardness which persons of their education and social position would exhibit in England or America.

Closely following upon the soldiers came a standard-bearer, carrying the great flag of Berne, with the bear, as usual, the most prominent part of it. The herald, who rode next, was a finelooking man, chosen for his imposing presence, and more elegantly dressed, perhaps, than any other individual in the procession. His costly velvet coat was worked with the arms of the town of Berne, and those of each of the districts of the canton. He held in his hand a wand-the emblem of his office and rode a gayly-decked horse. Two pages, remarkable for their beauty, accompanied him; and a band of men carrying the banners of the thirty districts, into which the canton was of old divided, closed this portion of the procession.

Those who took part in the next division, representing the city of Berne, were all on foot. The man in complete armor. walking at their head, was quite eclipsed by the next personage, which was no less than the Mutz, or Bear. A man dressed in a bearskin is a constant companion of all processions at Berne, for the bear is almost held sacred here.

He

is always represented with his tongue thrust out, just as he appears on the old coins of the place. Our Mutz on this occasion carried a pikestaff, and had a scarf tied around his body, which, with a sword dangling from his waist, set off his ap

pearance to great advantage. He seemed to relish the scene, too; for he danced and performed divers antics whenever the train stopped, to the no small amusement of the boys especially, with whom the Mutz, and bruins in general, are particular favorites. A detachment of musicians, who came next, were accompanied by two men in coat-of-mail armor protecting their entire bodies. They were the bearers of the old and new city banners, both of them having the bear upon them, as the most conspicuous object.

The delegates of the Abbayes followed. These abbayes, which now correspond to our club-houses in great part, seem to have been formerly more like the guilds of other places; and their origin was so far back in the middle ages, that they possess, as in this case, some prescriptive privileges. To-day, over each of their houses the flag was flying, until it was taken down to appear subsequently in the procession. Over the window from which I enjoyed the sight of this festive scene, the tattered flag of the "Falcon " fluttered in the wind, now serving for little more than the adorning of a hotel. On the opposite side of the street was displayed the equally ancient banner of the abbaye, or guild, of the blacksmiths. Altogether there were thirteen of the delegations, each armed with weapons appropriate to their occupations, or else with the common martial implements of the olden time. The bakers carried lances, the blacksmiths their large hammers, the butchers their broad meat-axes, the shoemakers battleaxes, the weavers heavy maces, and the boatmen their oars. Their dresses were gay and varied, though all were referable to the same period, that is, to the sixteenth century. I was struck with the similarity between the costume of these persons and that worn by the body-guard of the pope. Like his predecessors, Pope Pius IX. finds it expedient for his personal safety, to provide himself with a regiment recruited from the principal Roman Catholic cantons of the confederation. Everybody has heard of their curious uniform. Their coat and short-clothes of yellow, red, and black cloth. united in stripes or other patterns, gives them, to the eyes of one who sees them for the first time, the appearance of a company of buffoons. displayed for the amusement of the populace. But he will soon find that on them the pontiff principally relies for defence against his own subjects, as well as against a foreign foe. Travellers are gravely informed by their guidebooks, that Michael Angelo was the designer of this ridiculous accoutrement! As there were a great number of various

costumes of the period in this procession, all of them much alike in shape, but rendered much more picturesque than that of the pope's guard, by a judicious combination of colors; the story, if true, would reflect little credit on the taste of the famous sculptor.

Next after these, came the second division of the procession, commemorating the eight original cantons, with a large man at its head carrying the great banner of Grütli, where the oath of the three patriots on the lonely rocks of the Lake of Lucerne was portrayed. Afterwards came two historical characters,-William Tell and his son. I have no doubt that these two were selected from a great number of persons, solely on account of their fine appearance. William Tell was a very handsome man, with a noble and bold countenance. With his huntingpouch, he carried a quiver full of arrows; and the crossbow, with which he was famous for his dexterity, he swung upon his right shoulder. With his left hand Tell led his son, a sprightly boy of seven or eight years, who walked about so proudly, that you might have supposed him the hero's child, glorying in his father's world-famed skill. His velvet cap was adorned with a feather, and in one hand he carried the apple pierced by his father's arrow. Then followed delegates from the eight original cantons, all armed and carrying their banners-Zurich holding the first rank, and after it Berne, Zucerne, Uri, with the bull's head, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Glaris and Zug. This part again ended with a company of men-at-arms.

Next came the portion commemorative of the battle of Laupen, a horseman who preceded it carrying the banner of that town. Then, after the musicians had passed, a palpable proof of the victory was exhibited, in the shape of no less than twenty-seven flags captured on that battlefield. Each of them was more or less tattered, for besides the rough handling they encountered in the action, they had been mouldering at Berne for more than five hundred years. Among these moth-eaten prizes, a friend told me he had noticed the ducal standard of Hapsburg, a circumstance which would not be very pleasant to Austrian pride. After these followed three knights, who were among the most distinguished in the battle of Laupen; among them the one who drew the most attention was the venerable John of Bubenberg, who was a senator, and volunteered so disinterestedly to throw himself into the threatened town. He was dressed in complete armor, and carried on his left arm a buckler of a triangular shape,

adorned with the armorial bearings of his family. Then appeared a band of Bernese, and after them Rudolph of Erlach, who, as I mentioned, commanded the confederates in the action. He was accompanied by Baselwind, the almoner of the army, and by his squire. There came, a few moments after, the free men of Oberhasli, those sturdy mountaineers from the foot of the Jungfrau, and the baron of Weissenburg with his followers of the Siebenthal, or seven valleys, armed with maces. The train of triumphal wagons, which followed, attracted more attention. The armor and weapons upon them were disposed as a trophy: for this was the spoil taken from the battle-field, where "the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away." Spears and helmets were heaped together, with here and there a cuirass, which the horseman had thrown away in his eager haste to escape. Battle-axes were interspersed with flags, which many a German had sacrificed his life in defending. Above all, was a complete suit of armor, in which, five centuries ago, a valiant knight of Suabia, perhaps, had laid himself down to die, among the heaps of wounded men. But the cumbrous car soon passed away, and with it all thoughts of those thousands to whom the name of Laupen, which we now rejoice to hear, proved a deathknell of their pride and happiness. The men of Uri, of Schwytz, and of Unterwalden, the three forest cantons, who sent their contingents to the engagement, came immediately after. Hauptman, who led the inhabitants of Soleure, the only city faithful to the Bernese alliance, you could distinguish by his coat of mail, and other armor of burnished steel.

So I

The last part of the procession, in honor of Morat, was preceded by a man who carried the flag of that city. Then a party of Bernese accompanied the cannons, which were drawn by horses, harnessed to the old rickety wagons. This reminded me that the use of gunpowder had been discovered by the Europeans, or, at least. that it was first employed in warfare, during the period that elapsed between the battle of Laupen and this one. was not astonished to find the cannon extremely long, clumsy in shape, and apparently weak, and the mortars small and ineffective. Yet they were more serviceable than one would probably have imagined; for these same slender pieces produced sad havoc, when they had been captured by the Swiss, and turned against the enemy. The knights who followed were each dressed in his own costume. The most conspicuous among them was Hallwyl, who commanded the Bernese: the others were the confederate knights of

Germany and Switzerland. Next appeared some boys, carrying some of the spoil taken from the duke of Burgundy,-flags, dresses, and a surplice or two belonging to priests who accompanied the camp of the invader. A large wagon, too, carried the seven large pieces of tapestry curiously worked, serving once as the duke's tent. It was closely followed by another car, more heavily laden than the first, with the armor gathered on the battle-field of Morat. The whole procession closed with a detachment of soldiers in full armor.

The Bernese, and especially the country people, who had come from a distance, were extremely pleased with the procession which they had taken so much pains to visit; and as they dispersed, I have no doubt they carried away with them more patriotism than they brought. We, too, who were but rather unconcerned spectators of this, to them, heartstirring spectacle, went away with somewhat higher notions of the bravery and efficiency of the Swiss troops, from having had so palpable a demonstration of it presented to our eyes. This, however, was not exactly the time for practical reflections. The crowd was dispersing, and as we had only a few more hours of daylight to spend in Berne, we sallied forth to see the principal points, to which the throng appeared to be pressing-one was the upper platform, just outside the walls. Here it was that we expected to see the whole panorama of the Oberland, but the flitting clouds, as fast as they disclosed one snowy peak, covered its neighbors with their thick mantle; and

our view, to say the least, was very unsatisfactory. A large wooden shed had been erected near by, of that beautiful châlet style, in which the Bernese excel, and under this a supper was to be given by the city to the delegates of other cantons, and to those who had taken part in the procession. Poor fellows! they needed refreshment; for we had heard during the afternoon, that some of them were severely injured by the unaccustomed weight which they were obliged to carry about. One poor man had a load of eighty pounds, with which he promenaded the streets for hours.

We could not wait here, for we had not yet seen the Bears; and what traveller would acknowledge that he had left Berne without seeing them? The Bargraben is a deep hole, a part of the old ditch surrounding the city. There was a crowd of men and boys around it, watching the antics of Bruin, who fared so well that day, that he must have congratulated himself, as much as any body else did, on the happy celebration. The bear being the city's emblem, the municipal government supports one or two of them at its own expense, and has recently purchased another young cub for the amusement of the urchins.

The evening was clear, and throngs of peasants might be seen riding, or driving, or walking home, all in a jovial mood. As for us, after parting with regret from the friends we had so fortuitously met here, we were, before midnight, on our way towards Geneva.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »